Shashi Tharoor On 3 Reasons Why Pak Can't Hide Its Link With Terror

NDTV

06-06-2025

New Delhi:
Shashi Tharoor has given three reasons why Pakistan can't deny its involvement in the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 tourists. Mr Tharoor was responding to a question during a discussion hosted by a US think tank when he gave the three points.
Here are the three key points Shashi Tharoor presented
"The first is that we have had a 37-year pattern of repeated terror attacks from Pakistan accompanied by repeated denials. I mean Americans haven't forgotten that Pakistan didn't know allegedly where Osama bin Laden was until he was found in a Pakistani safe house right next to an army camp in a cantonment city. That's Pakistan. Mumbai attacks, they denied having anything to do with it; one of the terrorists was captured alive, his name, his identity, his address in Pakistan, everything was revealed under interrogation. He told us where he was trained, what was done. The US intelligence as well as ours recorded the chilling voice of the Pakistani handler giving minute by minute instructions to the killers in Mumbai, telling them where to go and they were monitoring Indian TV and saying there are people hiding on the third floor of that hotel, go and shoot them there. This kind of thing is going on... So we know what Pakistan is all about. They will disperse terrorists, they will deny, they did so until they are actually caught red handed."
"Second point, the moment this [Pahalgam terror attack] happened, within 45 minutes or so a group called the Resistance Front claimed credit. Who is the Resistance Front? It is a well-known proxy front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned terror organisation listed by the United Nations, listed by the US State Department, which enjoys safe haven in the town of Muridke in Pakistan. The evidence about the Resistance Front and its doings was presented by India to the UN Committee on Terrorism in December 2023 and again in 24. But the problem was of course Pakistan too is a member of that committee. The Resistance Front was not listed by the UN, but its identity was known and publicised. These people then claimed credit within a time span. There were no media present when these killings took place. Most of the world hadn't even learned about this when they claimed credit. So that was itself a smoking gun. They repeated that claim 24 hours later. And having repeated that claim 24 hours later, their handlers must have woken up to the gravity of this, and told them to take it off their site. So they did. But the fact is the credit claim was on record and the world has seen it."
"Third, when the first strikes happened on the terrorist camps [in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir], funerals were conducted, including for members of some of the key [terror] organisations, the Jaish-e-Mohammed in particular and the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The funerals were conducted and photographs emerged on social media showing Pakistani generals and police officers in uniform attending these funerals, being conducted by relatives of these terrorists. So we are looking at three concrete pieces of evidence as far as India is concerned. But finally I can add to the mix, we also have intelligence services. They have been studying these terrorist attacks very carefully. They have identified at least four of the five perpetrators and they know who they are. In fact, I'm told, and I don't have access to the direct intelligence information, but I have been reliably informed, they know that two of them are Pakistanis and the other two were locals who had exfiltrated, as the term, out to Pakistan for training 10 years ago and clearly were sent back for this mission."